


For even eternity must end

by Fangu



Category: Final Fantasy XII
Genre: Crime Scenes, Murder, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-13
Updated: 2014-05-13
Packaged: 2018-01-24 15:03:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1609409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fangu/pseuds/Fangu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Penelo is called to help out concluding a murder scene - the cockpit of <em>the Strahl</em>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For even eternity must end

**Author's Note:**

> I wanted to keep this short and simple. Based on [this](http://iamfangu.tumblr.com/post/73409592988/iamfangu-if-fran-were-talking-about).

The bodies had been removed when Penelo entered the cockpit of The Strahl, a ship she had flown as a passenger many times, even been allowed to fly for approximately twelve and a half minutes one time her pilot had looked away and her co-pilot insisted Penelo try flying.

Fran had shown her, patiently, calmly - slender, clawed hands teaching Penelo how to work the controls, letting her focus on the task of flying instead of worrying about crashing the twenty-one ton fighter prototype into the sea. Soft, silver hair tickled Penelo’s neck as she sat pinned to the pilot’s chair, staring intensely at the blue skies ahead, Fran leaning over her shoulders, whispering gently into her ear:

“You are doing well.”

Penelo was not a teenager to exclaim joy. “Thank you,” she nodded quietly, pride bursting.

Years now passed, the pilot chair maintained the same colour, save for the blue markings making out the shape of a Hume male.

“It is clear that they both died from the same poison, but from how the plates and cutlery are arranged, we have reason to believe they died at different times.” The Bangaa folded his hands behind his back, looking out the cockpit window, giving Penelo room to walk quietly around the cockpit. The co-pilot’s chair had the same blue markings.

Penelo felt her stomach turn. “How do you mean?”

“The male victim was poisoned through the food he ate, while the female probably died later, and much faster, by the liquid content in the broken glass found next to her chair.”

The floor opened beneath Penelo’s feet. The cockpit wavered, softly, just like back in the days when The Strahl prepared for shooting towards the sky. She put a hand to the wall.

“She poisoned him.”

The Bangaa turned towards her, nodding.

Penelo didn’t have to utter the words now spinning in her head, endlessly. _Then she poisoned herself._

“Why,” she whispered.

“I was hoping you could tell me,” he said, but Penelo had nothing to offer but the shaking of her head. Slowly, very slowly, she walked out of the cockpit and into the next room, staring at the two beds, remembering too late: As she sat down on the soft mattress, she gasped.

This was Fran’s bed.

Was.

She cried then, drying the tears with the back of her hand, apologizing to the port investigator who muttered his apologies back, handing her a handkerchief.

“You never expected this to happen.”

“No,” Penelo said, drying her nose.

“Can you remember anything she might have said that will let us close this investigation?”

She remembered. That one line from Fran which she always thought strange, uttered in a way that had Penelo frowning, something creeping up her spine she’d shook off the very next moment. Fran always delivered deep lines, words of wisdom; few of them were her own. Penelo only listened with half an ear - Vaan with none. It was because of her silly crush on her childhood friend she wanted to talk to Fran. About love.

“I asked her what was important to her,” Penelo sobbed. “What she favoured in a partner, and what she would do, if she had forever to spend with this person.”

The investigator nodded, waiting for her to continue.

_I should want to be with them in a night to which dawn would never come,  
for even eternity must end._

 


End file.
